Since we’re seeing the covers from my old Hunters (Samhain) might as well post snippets, right?

Here’s one from Hunter’s Edge

How fricking classic—a vampire sleeping the day away in a cemetery.

If he’d had much choice, he would have tried to find someplace else, but choices were limited. The trucker had left him just outside Greenburg a little before dawn and with the clock ticking, Kel went for the first secure place that he came across.

Instinct drove him to get closer to Angel, but he hadn’t known where to look. As dawn crept closer, he had to focus on finding someplace dark and solitary. The private mausoleums in the old Greenburg Cemetery definitely fit that description.

He’d banked on being able to get into one of the older ones that didn’t get visits often and he’d been right. The one he’d selected had none of the stained glass windows and a recessed doorway.

Inside, with the door closed, it had been as dark as a tomb, just the thinnest sliver of pre-dawn light visible under the door itself.

As sweet, safe darkness wrapped around him, it took everything he had just to stumble away from the door and get one of the freestanding vaults inside the crypt between him and the door as an extra precaution.

Kel didn’t even remember getting horizontal. As enraged and scared and worried as he was, he’d thought sleep would elude him but it didn’t, hitting him hard and fast.

Normally Kel only needed four or five hours of sleep, but by the time he came awake a little before dusk, he’d been out for probably twelve hours.

The setting sun had kept him prisoner within the small crypt for a while longer. He shrugged out of his jacket long enough to pull on a T-shirt that he’d “borrowed” from the trucker earlier. Killed a bit of time pacing endlessly up and down the stone floor.

Finally the sun set. His body recognized the moment it was safe. He slipped out of the musty, confining crypt with the sure and certain knowledge that he was glad his body wasn’t going to end up in some quiet, private resting place for all eternity. When he did die, he’d be burned and that suited him just fine.

Outside in the cool night air, he lifted his head and breathed in, letting the air wash over and through him, sweeping away the stink of decay.

The sound of a truck moving over the road had him retreating and swearing. It wasn’t that late yet, probably only around seven, and he sure as hell didn’t need anybody seeing him here. Greenburg was a small town and Kel knew for a fact his face hadn’t changed a bit since he’d lived here.

He slipped into the tree line, his mind focused on finding Angel. But something, he couldn’t even explain what, stopped him. Physically stopped him. He couldn’t take another step away and everything inside him urged him to turn around. Unable to deny it, he turned and his eyes sought out the truck creeping along one of the cemetery paths.

It was a beat-up old Ford and even with his eyesight, he couldn’t quite see through the windows. But he knew.

Somewhere inside him, without even seeing her, he knew. He slipped forward, just where the trees gave way to grass and there, he crouched, one hand resting on the trunk of the tree, the other clutching the ring at his neck.

Hiding in the shadows, he watched, spellbound, as the truck came to a stop and the door opened. There was a fist wrapped around his throat, around his heart, and it wasn’t going to ease up anytime soon.

It was her.

Angel.

Tears stung his eyes but he couldn’t move to wipe them away so they just fell down his cheeks unchecked. Angel…

She slid out of the truck and moved through the maze of headstones and aboveground crypts. She came to a halt in front of one… Close, so close. He could smell her now. The cool breeze brought the scent of her to him and he closed his eyes, lost himself inside it.

Her hair was shorter than he’d ever seen it, the ends just barely brushing her shoulders. The silky blonde curls gleamed silver in the moonlight, blowing in the breeze. A stray strand blew into her eyes and she reached up to brush it back.

Even though she was a good thirty feet away, when she spoke, he heard the words as clearly as if she murmured them into his ear. “But for how much longer?” Her voice was soft, sad…despondent. Oblivious to his presence, she reached inside her pocket and pulled something out.

His ears heard a faint rattle, but he couldn’t see what she held. Whatever it was, it caused a look of bitter anger to cross her features. She tucked it back into her pocket and then crouched by the grave.

His heart didn’t beat often, but it did still beat. But when he heard her next words, he thought it might just stop altogether—stop, crack and then wither up and blow away just like so much dust.

“I’m a mess, Kel, you know that? I’ve been like this ever since you left, but it’s getting bad again. I don’t even know who I am right now.”

Kel…shit. Yeah, he knew logically his parents would have had some sort of funeral, however it was done without a body. Logically, he knew he probably had a headstone or something out there somewhere with his name on it.

But logically knowing that couldn’t have prepared him for the sight of his woman kneeling by the side of his grave. She shifted and sat down, pulled her legs to her chest. The grief on her face made a knot form in his throat.

“I miss you. That’s one thing I do know. But it seems like the only thing. I ought to be able to make a bit more sense of my life than that.”

He clenched his jaw shut to keep from speaking out loud, but he couldn’t keep himself from answering her silently. Dear God, baby. I miss you too.

The wind picked up and he watched, helpless, as she started to shiver. He wanted to go to her, wrap his arms around her and offer her some warmth. But how could a vampire offer her warmth? He had to steal it when he wanted it for himself, through blood or sex.

“Twelve years, baby.”

Twelve miserable years.

What would have happened if that night hadn’t ever come to pass? He would have married her, he could have spent the past twelve years sleeping next to her at night, rising to make love to her before they left the house to go out and do whatever in the hell normal people did…in the daylight.

Her voice, harsh and broken, came again. “This isn’t fair.”

The sound of the tears thickening her voice had his hand tightening and he didn’t realize he’d torn the bark from the tree.

Shit, this was killing him. He’d been bleeding and dying inside bit by bit over the past twelve years. Now, face-to-face with her, he saw that she was suffering just as he was.

“I’m so tired of it.”

As she started to lay back onto the grass, Kel shoved to his feet. Fuck, he couldn’t sit there and watch as she lay down to cry over an empty grave. Couldn’t—

You can read more here & check out the other Hunter covers.